Alternatives International

If You Think In Terms Of A Year, Plant A Seed

Michael Ryan Wiseman — 2009-06-04T20:58:47Z

Ohh, seed money. I only
caught the first part.

I have never understood why people
make such a production about birthdays.
On the face of it they are utterly
meaningless, mere symbols; excuses
to celebrate, intoxicate, evaluate, and—
finally— become disenchanted and
disillusioned with life for one all-too-
short day of a year that, somehow, has
always passed quicker than the last.

All birthdays end the same way: with you
waking-up the next morning writhing in
pain while pleading with a Higher-Power
to whom you now steadfastly subscribe
(a day before you were, paradoxically,
sure of your agnosticism) and begging
desperately for fewer wrinkles and
another chance at everything that you
have decided that you are entitled to
but were, of course, cruelly deprived of
through absolutely no fault of your own.
No? It's just me then.

Besides the weather, little ever
changes in the time that it takes for the
Earth to spin around. Indeed, besides
the weather, little changes in the time
that it takes for the Earth to spin around
the Sun.

So, as the sun does all of us here at
Alternatives International Journal the
dubious favour of rising for the three-
hundred-and-sixty-sixth time over our
tempestuous universe, why this entirely
unnatural and unnerving sense of
optimism?

The world, a year later, seems little
better. Economic catastrophe has
joined the ecological one that was
already in progress; olive branches are
few, far between, and in dire demand the
world over; the pigs have finally made
their move (Four Legs Good...) and are
clearly intent on spreading pestilence—
thus far they have been held in check,
but if we insist on keeping thousands
of them under the same roof with lax
sanitation protocol and non-existent
oversight, a barnyard rebellion will be
the least of our concerns.

And yet hope, ever last into the casket,
endures— and will do until the sun
grows cold. Says one, concerned, “The
shadows are creeping in, let us move
over there to where it is still sunny.”
Says the other, “Stop cursing the sun
for sliding across the horizon— climb
the trees that are casting the afore-
lamented shadows. Find me a cloud
and I'll share your concern.”

If a fire on a beach can lead to the
discovery of glass, if fruit juice left
out in the sun can uncover a form of
intoxicant, if the mould harnessed from
an unwashed Petri dish can go on to
save countless lives, then why couldn't
we combine forces to create something
never before known— all the ingredients
are there. It requires only the wisdom to
recognize potential.

A heartfelt thanks to all of our inspired
contributors, to our extremely talented—
and patient— graphic designer, to our
tireless and brilliant editorial board, and
to you, Dear Reader, for if an incorrigibly
clever tree falls in the middle of an
inordinately dim forest and nobody is
around to scoff at it, why doesn't it just
get a haircut and a real job?

Photo: Matt Gibson

Kind of a BIG Deal

Herbert Jauch — 2009-06-04T20:58:44Z

Namibia, a vast country inhabited by two million people, is one of the
smaller economies in Southern Africa. It adopted a market-based
economic system after achieving independence from apartheid-
era South Africa in 1990. Despite creating favourable investment
conditions and its high levels of political stability, Namibia, with its
ample mineral and marine resources, could not break the vicious
cycle of mass unemployment, inequality, and poverty.

In 2002, the Namibian government appointed the Namibia Tax
Consortium to review Namibia's tax system and to explore ways of
addressing poverty and inequality. The subsequent report found “that
by far the best method of addressing poverty and inequality would
be a universal income grant.” The commission further suggested that
the BIG should be set at a level of at least N$ 100 (USD$ 12) per
person per month.

A BIG would cover all Namibians from birth until they reach the age
of 60, at which time the national old age pension scheme (currently
N$ 470 per month) would kick in. The consortium pointed out that
the net costs of the Basic Income Grant would amount to about
3% of Namibia's GDP and could be recovered through changes in
the tax system, whose collection rate is currently below 25%, thus
making a BIG affordable.

The Namibian government was divided over the question of a BIG.
Some regarded it as an unaffordable welfare measure, while the
International Monetary Fund did its utmost to discourage Namibia's
policy makers from implementing it. Undeterred, in 2004 a coalition
of churches, trade unions, NGOs, and AIDS Service organisations
formed the Basic Income Grant Coalition to advocate for the
introduction of a BIG in Namibia.

After three years of debating and lobbying, no breakthrough was
achieved; government ministers and parliamentarians were still
divided over the merits of a BIG. Finally, the Coalition decided to
implement a basic income grant in a single village.

The chosen location was the settlement of Otjivero in the Omitara
district of Eastern Namibia. About 1,000 people reside there. Most
of them are retrenched former farm workers and their families, all
of whom have nowhere else to go. Poverty and desperation were
widespread and the Coalition believed
that if the BIG could make a difference
in the lives of the residents of Ojtivero,
it would certainly be able to make a
difference in the rest of the country.

The pilot project started in January
2008. All residents below the age of
60 years received a Basic Income
Grant of N$100 per person per
month— no strings attached. A local
and international research team has
accompanied the introduction of the
BIG; their task is to closely monitor its
impact over a two-year period.

The community itself responded to the
introduction of the BIG by establishing
their own eighteen-member committee
to mobilize the community and advise
residents on how they could improve
their lives with the money. This suggests
that the introduction of a BIG can
effectively assist with community
mobilisation and empowerment.

The first to benefit have been the
children. In just six months child
malnutrition plummeted from 42%
to 17%, while the number of parents
paying for school fees doubled to
90%. More children are now attending
school and the stronger financial
situation has enabled the school to
improve teaching materials for the
pupils. The school principal reported
that dropout rates at her school were
30-40% before the introduction of
the BIG. By July 2008, these rates
were reduced to a mere 5% and by
November 2008, they were almost nil.

Another striking fact is that income has
risen by more than the amount of the
grants. People are now able to engage
in more productive activities, which has
fostered local economic growth and
development; several small industries
have sprouted up in Otjivero, such as
dressmaking, baking, and brick making.
Indeed, since the introduction of
the BIG, the majority of people have
been able to increase their work and
their income dramatically. Average monthly household incomes increased
substantially over and above the value
of the BIG payments: household
incomes from wages increased by
19%, income from farming increased
by 36%, and income from self-
employment increased by 301% during
the first year. These findings contradict
critics' claims that the BIG would lead
to laziness and dependency.

Worries that the grants would lead
to more alcoholism proved likewise
unfounded. On the contrary, the
introduction of the BIG has induced
the community to set up a committee
that is trying to curb alcoholism. An
agreement has also been reached with
local shebeen owners not to sell alcohol
on the day of the payout of the grants.

Meanwhile, economic and poverty-
related crime (illegal hunting, theft and
trespassing) has fallen by over 50%.
The Basic Income Grant has also
helped young women to take charge of
their own lives. Several cases document
that young women have been freed
from having to engage in transactional
sex.

A further boon is that the BIG
has supported and strengthened
government efforts to provide
antiretroviral treatment to people
suffering from HIV/AIDS by improving
access to government services and
enabling people to afford nutrition. The
settlement's health clinic was visited
much more frequently; residents were
able to pay the N$ 4 and it has seen its
income increase fivefold.

The initial results of this pilot project
are encouraging and have, thus far,
exceeded the expectations of the
BIG Coalition. The local community
has embraced the pilot project and is
determined to make it a success. The
BIG Coalition now hopes to convince
the Namibian government to introduce a
countrywide BIG in the near future.

All these positives aside, there is no
doubt that the BIG is a limited measure
and cannot be a panacea for Namibia's
considerable socio-economic challenges.
The initiative has to be accompanied by
other measures of resource redistribution,
job creation and structural change.
However, the BIG represents a promising
starting point that can make an immediate
dent in the debilitating and violent poverty
that undermines the lives of so many
Namibians.

For further information on the BIG, visit
www.bignam.org

HERBERT JAUCH is the Head of
Research and Education at Namibia's
Labour Resource and Research
Institute (LaRRI), www.larri.com.na.

Photo: Dirk Haarmann

The Little Engine That Couldn't

Myriam Cloutier — 2009-06-04T20:58:42Z

Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here.

Railway Privatization in Senegal and Mali

More than five years after the
management of the railway connecting
Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to
Bamako, the capital of Mali, was yielded
to the Transrail consortium, the network
lies in ruins. And it is the population that
is paying the price for a privatization that
went off the rails.

The infrastructure of the Dakar-Bamako
railway is dilapidated, the accidents
frequent. No investment plan has been
implemented despite the promises, since
2003, of the shareholders who have
ascended to the leadership of Transrail.

But the worst is perhaps still to come.
Verging on bankruptcy, Transrail
wants to reduce spending by laying-
off 376 of its 1,468 employees. This
cost rationalization, announced by the
Board of Directors in March, provoked
the ire of the Senegalese and Malian
rail workers. Their unions decided
to sever all ties with management.

In Senegal, the tone has hardened
drastically: at the beginning of April,
the three railway workers' unions
organized a march and brought trains to
a standstill between Thiès (Senegal's
Third City) and Dakar over the course
of twenty-four hours. Recourse to
an indefinite general strike is also in
the offing. On the Malian side, the
the Minister of Transport has made it
known that he opposes the layoffs.

Transrail has a history of adopting
an anti-union stance. Since 2003
hundreds of employees have been laid
off. Moreover, workers have experienced
wage reductions and the elimination of
certain social benefits. In June and July
of 2006, the unions triggered a series
of— ultimately unsuccessful— strikes that
paralyzed rail traffic for several days.

“For the workers, it's miserable. For the
population and the national economy,
it's a disaster. I do not understand how
the public authorities or the president
can continue to defend privatization,”
explained the Director of the Citizens'
Collective for the Restitution and the
Integrated Development of Malian
Railways (Cocidirail), Thiécoura
Traoré. A former Transrail employee
and former leader of the Rail Workers'
Union (Sytrail) in Mali, he himself was
laid off in 2004 without compensation.
The reason offered up by Transrail:
disloyalty, due to the views he expressed
via Cocidirail.

The privatization of the railway has not
only worsened the working conditions
of the union members, it has also
affected the mobility of the population
as well as the local economy. Indeed,
passenger transportation on the
Malian rail network is in a state of
near-abandonment because private
operators predominantly manage
the international transit of goods in
order to reap short-term profits— all
at the expense of service to users.

Furthermore, the closure of twenty-
six stops and stations in Mali ensured
that many villages are now isolated and
Railways in Senegal and Mali
that there are, in the absence of travelers
and merchants, no more opportunities
for inhabitants along the railway line to
exchange food products.

Next Stop, Trouble

In 2003, Mali and Senegal privatized
international traffic on the Dakar-Bamako
railway, which was previously the domain
of Malian Railways (RCFM) and the
National Railway Society of Senegal
(SNCS). The management of operations
was then entrusted to Canac (a company
of consultants and a train operator with
corporate headquarters in Montreal) and
Getma (France) who together acquired
51% of the shares of a consortium that
has taken the name Transrail SA.

If the SNCS has kept up passenger
transport for Dakar and its surroundings
out to Thiès, it is Mali that drew the
shortest straw in this affair: the RCFM
was dissolved, its employees lost their
positions, and passenger service (the
Kayes-Bamako-Koulikoro route) was
abandoned by Transrail.

RCFM, valued at CDN$275 million, was
let go for CDN$18 million, a sum payable
in seven years on the back of the rail line,
with a renewable concession for a period
of 25 years.

With dissatisfaction in full swing, the
Canadians at the heart of the railway
privatization chaos withdrew in 2007. Canac
was bought by the American company
Savage, which then sold its stake in Transrail
to the Belgian company Vecturis, who is
the new operator. Also in 2007, the Paris-
based Advens Group, directed by Abbas
Jaber, a close friend of Karim Wade—the
son of Senegal's President—became the
majority shareholder of Transrail, in addition
to having gotten his hands on the country's
strategic peanut and cotton sectors.

End Of the Line

An audit conducted in Paris, in December
2007 in collaboration with the World
Bank, Senegal, and Mali, estimated
Canac-Getma's deficit for the period
between 2003 and 2006 to be $20
million. With Vecturis at the helm of
Transrail, the deficit rose by $6.4 million
in the last months of 2007 alone. The
audit suggested that the states should
reinvest, but neither Senegal nor Mali is
ready to do so as they are already heavily
indebted.

In June 2008, the Ministries of Transport
of Senegal and Mali spoke out officially
on the state of the railway for the first time.
In a joint declaration, they conceded that
privatization had failed and spoke of the
“death of the railway business.” These
two states elaborated that, in five years,
Transrail had not succeeded in managing
the routes more efficiently than the former
national companies.

Transrail has never complied with the
conditions of its operating contract, which
was contingent upon an investment plan
for the maintenance and repair works on
the Dakar-Bamako line. To this day, such
a plan does not exist.

Now, Transrail is imposing a “rescue
plan,” which not only consists of massive
lay-offs, but insists that the states of
Senegal and Mali pay $22 million. With
this money, Transrail claims it will be able
to make an emergency investment and
begin the process of recapitalization.

Meanwhile, for Malian users, things
continue to deteriorate. Mohamed
Tabouré an activist with Cocidirail,
laments, “Our political leaders are hand
in glove with the multinational companies
and this is why they comply with their
demands and are careful not to take
action.” Cocidirail advocates “integrated
development” whereby Mali and Senegal
reappropriate the railway and make it an
instrument for community development.
For this to occur, a total takeover of the
transport of passengers and goods by
the state would be necessary.

However, such a renationalization is
unlikely to take place. The privatization
of the National Telecommunications
Company of Mali (SOTELMA) is
underway, and a law passed in August by
their Parliament, under pressure from the
World Bank, authorizes the privatization
of the Malian Textile Development
Company, which manages the nation's
cotton spinnerets. Yet this industry ranks
first in exportable goods and is profitable
for the state.

Have they missed the moral of the story?

Myriam Cloutier is a contributor to
Alternatives' French-language edition.

Photo: flickr / ROADSIDEPICTURES
Illustrated by: GEORGE & DORIS HAUMAN

Balancing The Scales

Sally Richmond — 2009-06-04T20:58:39Z

Rather than getting squeezed by
conventional trade, thousands of
artisans and farmers around the world
will have enough money to provide their
families with food, shelter, education,
and health care.

The Fair Trade movement is a worldwide
phenomenon that holds at its core the
belief that people come before profits.
Fair Trade is a response to the global
inequalities caused by the conventional
trading system that has all too often
resulted in the rich becoming richer
whilst the producers at the bottom of
the trade chain remain desperately poor.

In order for an organisation to be
recognised as Fair Trade, it must satisfy
the 10 standards of the World Fair
Trade Organisation (WFTO), the first
of which is the payment of a fair price,
determined through dialogue with the
producer groups.

By working directly with producer
groups, Fair Trade avoids middlemen.
Conventional trade normally requires the
use of 3-10 middlemen. Avoiding this
has the threefold advantage of allowing
the producer to have a greater cut of
the final selling price, cutting the cost of
importation, and increasing transparency
for the Fair Trade Organisation.

It is also crucial to commit to long-
term, reliable trade relationships.
Conventional traders will often cancel
orders or renegotiate the prices after
the orders have been placed, leaving the
producers vulnerable and making their
work risky.

Respecting human rights is fundamental
to Fair Trade, particularly those of
women and children. Women remain
disproportionately amongst the poorest
in society and often have no social safety
nets, no education, no voice, and few
choices. For these reasons, 70% of the
producers that Ten Thousand Villages /
Dix Mille Villages (a non-profit FTO that is
one of the pioneers of the movement- full
disclosure: your correspondent proudly
manages one of their stores) works with
are women. Women are given an equal
voice and are always paid the same salaries
as men. Producer groups are also often
able to offer services and programmes to
their workers and to the wider community,
including help with education, medical
care, insurance, revolving loans, skills
training, and profit sharing.

For trade to be truly fair the local
environment of the producers must be
respected as well. Fair Trade dealers
must work with producers to support
the use of clean fuels, clean production
methods, and sustainable materials.
Indeed, many products are made of re-
used or re-cycled or re-claimed materials.

One such producer group is Get Paper.
Based in Nepal, Get Paper started out
as a small income-generating project
for Dalits— the lower caste of so-
called Untouchables. Paper making
was chosen because the process is
fairly simple to learn and because of the
abundance of raw materials— recycled
waste paper and cotton, water hyacinth,
jute, and even corn husks. Since the start
of the project, the workforce has grown
from 14 employees to 125, with additional
seasonal workers to boot. As well as fair
wages, the workers are provided with free
lunches, health benefits, pension funds,
and a share in company profits.

Since 1993, Get Paper has used
25% of its profits to support various
community development initiatives.
They have planted over 2,000 trees as
Fair Dues continued from page 5
part of their reforestation project and
have developed a very successful HIV/
Aids Education Program.

The project of which Get Paper is most
proud is the “Send Your Daughter To
School” campaign. Tragically, Nepalese
girls born into very poor families are often
sent to work in brothels in India to earn
money to help support their families.
Firmly believing that education is the
key to ending this practice, Get Paper
built a series of girls' schools. After it
became apparent that the very poorest
people were still not sending their
daughters to school, Get Paper offered
the very poorest family in the village a
small allowance on the condition that
their girl went to school every day; this
inspired the families of those who were
a little better off to send their daughters
to school as well.

Get Paper has succeeded in making
life better for its employees and for
Nepalese all around the country, which
is what Fair Trade is all about.

Sally Richmond is the manager of
Montreal's Ten Thousand Villages-
Monkland as well as a Fair Trade activist.

Not Another Brick in the Wall

Ceyda Turan — 2009-06-04T20:58:36Z

Class in session: Sakena
Yacoobi drops some knowledge—
and inspiration—on the IHSP.

Sakena Yacoobi founded the Afghan
Institute of Learning (AIL), in 1995 to
“help address the problem of poor access
for women and children to education and
health services, their subsequent inability
to support their lives, and the impact
of this lack of education and health on
Afghan society.” This was the year the
Taliban came to power and banned girls'
education. Her goal was to “empower poor
women and children by providing them
access to education and health services
through an organisation designed and
run by Afghan women.” Over the past 14
years, the AIL has pioneered innovative
and culturally appropriate ways to deliver
health and educational services, and
community building.

The Afghan Institute of Learning is one
of the largest women-led nonprofit
organisations in Afghanistan. Yacoobi
was in Montreal on May 1st and 2nd
to attend the McGill Institute for
Health and Social Policy's Educational
Equity: Global and National Strategies
Conference. She spoke of the work of
the AIL in providing education, income-
generating skills, and hope in the hearts
of Afghanis to forge a new Afghanistan
with a bright future.

The Taliban's ban on girls' education
above the age of eight prevented the
vast majority of young women and girls in
Afghanistan from finishing even primary
school. But, through the Home School
Project, the AIL kept education for girls
alive by providing grades one through
eight underground. Underground home
schools were the only educational
option available to Afghan girls for more
than four years. In 2001 (the last year
of the underground home schools), the
AIL had 3,000 girls in 80 home schools
in Jalalabad, Kabul, Herat, and Logar.

The AIL was the first NGO to start
Women's Learning Centers (WLCs)
in Afghan refugee camps in 2002,
in Pakistan. WLCs trained teachers,
provided health education—including
midwifery training—and offered
preschool through university classes.
Women also learned income generating
skills and human rights education. The
AIL served 18,000 students through its
Women's Learning Centers in 2006.

Upon the request of communities
in Afghanistan, Yacoobi started
establishing WLCs in Kabul, Herat,
Parwan, Balkh and Bamiyan. The AIL
now has twenty-two Women's Learning
Centers in Afghanistan, where there
were none during the Taliban years.

The AIL has trained more than 13,000
teachers in interactive, student-
centered teaching, thereby accelerating
students' ability to learn quickly. More
than 390,000 Afghans have had access
to quality education thanks to the AIL's
teacher training programs.

The AIL has also been providing a pre-
school education program serving over
300 Afghan children per month in Kabul,
Herat, and Peshawar. The students
study a wide variety of subjects— Dari,
English, math, drawing, gymnastics,
handicrafts, health, and peace lessons.
They also learn and perform Afghan
songs, dances, poems, and short skits,
to build their self-esteem as well as their
knowledge of their heritage and culture.

The AIL's teacher training and school
support program has been an invaluable
service for tens of thousands of
Afghan children whose education was
interrupted by the war and civil strife in
Afghanistan. School support includes
teacher training, onsite monitoring
and supervision of teachers, teachers'
salaries, administrative support,
curriculum development, and provision
of school materials and supplies. The
AIL supports three community schools
with 1,100 Afghan refugee students
in Pakistan, two community based
schools for 1,300 students in Herat, a
pre-school for 300 students, advanced
classes for over 200 boys in Mir Bacha
Kot, and scholarships for students in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Yacoobi has been working with
community members to realize their
desire to educate their girls. Community
members cooperated with each other and
the AIL to secure space for the schools
and to insure that the schools, teachers,
and students could teach and learn safely.

Since the overthrow of the Taliban, the AIL
has played a major role in reconstructing
Afghan society. Today, it provides services
to 350,000 women and children annually
through its 42 program sites, including
four health clinics and 38 learning centers
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of the 400
Afghans that the AIL employs, over 70%
are women.

To read more about the work of these
courageous women, and/or to support
them with a donation, please visit
www.afghaninstituteoflearning.org

CEYDA TURAN is the Associate Editor of AIJ

Photo: IHSP

The 'O9 Canadian Government Herring

Bruce Campbell — 2009-06-04T20:58:33Z

Rust-Proofing Optional

It is now abundantly clear that Canada
and the world is facing its worst
economic crisis since the Great
Depression. However, a sense of
premature Hoover-type optimism seems
to have settled in to Ottawa's thinking,
breeding a dangerous complacency
that the government has done all that is
required to combat the recession. The
federal government appears to be hiding
behind the proposition that with strong
banks and strong fundamentals, the
Canadian economy will automatically
recover as US demand picks up.

The Bank of Canada has lowered
its interest rate to a near-zero level,
and has provided banks with billions of
dollars of liquid assets to counter the
recession and potential deflationary
expectations. It is concerned that
deflation, or falling prices, will become
generalized throughout the economy.
And once the cycle becomes
entrenched, as it did during the 1930s,
it will be extremely difficult to reverse.

The federal government's fiscal stimulus
package is beginning to inject demand
into the economy to counteract the
contraction of private sector demand,
although many economists argue that a
federal deficit of about 2% of GDP is too
little given the powerful headwinds the
nation faces. Unemployment insurance,
though greatly weakened by previous
governments (most recently the self-
financing rule imposed by the 2008
Budget) will also help to cushion
somewhat the fall in demand.

While it may be rational for an individual
firm trying to stay afloat to lay off workers,
reduce working hours, and/or push
for wage reductions, if this becomes
an economy-wide phenomenon the
resulting downward wage-price-
purchasing-power spiral, if unchecked,
will deepen and prolong the recession.

This is what happened during the
Great Depression. The deflationary
cycle became entrenched. Massive
price declines in both the US and
Canada were matched by a similar
drop in average wages; Keynes argued
for nominal wage anchors to stem the
downward spiral.

One of the things Roosevelt did when he
came to power in 1933 was to support
the Wagner Act, which strengthened
unions; setting a floor on wages and
initiating a process of rising wages,
prices, and production.

Government is the player responsible
for the overall management of the
economy. At a time like this it is the
only player that is capable of overriding
destructive counter-actionary impulses
of private businesses and households.

The federal government is undermining
the effectiveness of its own stimulus
efforts by freezing the wages of its
own employees and by forcing massive
auto sector wage concessions (which
incidentally will not solve the auto crisis)
as a condition of providing financial
support to the industry.

It also sends a contradictory signal
to business that somehow this belt-
tightening is good for the economy as
a whole. On the contrary, it will only
make matters worse— prolonging the
recession and delaying the recovery.

The current economic crisis was caused
by the meltdown of the bloated US
financial sector, not by exorbitant auto
or public service sector wages. Forced
wage rollbacks will cascade through the
economy reducing purchasing power
and demand, offsetting the very thing
the government is trying to reverse with
its stimulus policies. The collapse of
the auto sector (just like the collapse of
the financial sector) will most certainly
turn the current recession into a deep
depression.

Rather than scapegoating the Canadian
Auto Workers union for a crisis it did
not cause, the federal government
should focus its efforts on combating
the pressures of wage driven deflation,
maintaining income and employment,
and using public dollars to buy
transformation of the auto industry away
from gas-guzzlers to the low emission
vehicles of the future. Industrial policies
like this have been an important part of
the development of the auto industry
and are needed once again.

Bruce Campbell is the Executive Director
of the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives,www.policyalternatives.ca

photo: Kathy McEldowney

You Can Never Go Home Again

Ali Chabuk — 2009-06-04T20:58:22Z

The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula— now a part of Ukraine— for over seven centuries. They established their own Khanate in the 1440s and remained an important power in Eastern Europe until 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia. During World War II, Stalin deported the entire Crimean Tatar population en masse to Central Asia, mainly Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was only after the Soviet Union collapsed that the doors of Crimea were reopened to these indigenous people.

My family returned to Crimea in 2005.
I cannot say that my family's life in
Uzbekistan was unbearable and the
reason for our decision to return to
Crimea. My family did not face any major
social or economic diffi culties there. My
parents had jobs; I had the opportunity
to get a higher education. We Crimean
Tatars survived as a nation after our
deportation partly because we lived
among Uzbeks; their hospitality and
friendship gave us much support during
our fi rst years living in exile. I have great
sympathy for the Uzbek people and am
very thankful to them and their nation.

Nevertheless, my grandparents had
always dreamed of returning to Crimea.
I was brought up in an atmosphere
of constant reminiscences of our
Motherland— the expression “to live like
a native among aliens” speaks for itself.

Upon our return, my family encountered
problems of social reintegration.
Housing has been one of the fi rst and
foremost obstacles for our family— and
most of the Crimean Tatar returnees.
Our family of four lives in a 20 square
meter room within a dormitory with poor
facilities. Even though my father took
part, as a volunteer, in the management
of environmental consequences of the
nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986,
a service that is supposed to qualify him
for free government housing, nothing
has been granted to him. Our application
for land has also been refused without
any explanation, thus denying us the
opportunity to build a house.

As Crimean Tatars do not have the
legal right to reclaim the property
they lost after their deportation, many
returnees have resorted to seizing land
by organizing themselves into groups of
200 people or more. The issue of land
was once coordinated by the Mejlis,
the Representative body of Crimean
Tatars, which played an intermediary
role between local authorities and
Crimean Tatars to advocate for land
transfers in a diplomatic way. The Mejlis
once had the authority and infl uence to
coordinate such matters but that power
has, to some degree, been slipping. The
consequences may be devastating. The
lack of coordination undermines the
unity of the Crimean Tatars and risks
bringing a delicate situation to a head.

After housing, the issue of citizenship is
the biggest issue every Crimean Tatar
family has to resolve upon their return
to Ukraine. The absence of citizenship
deprives people of basic political,
economic, and social rights. In 1998,
an agreement unique in international
relations was reached between
Uzbekistan and Ukraine that would
simplify the procedure of acquiring
Ukrainian citizenship for Crimean
Tatar returnees. However, it takes the
government 5 to 6 months to process
the citizenship applications. During this
waiting period— with no legal status—
the returnees cannot earn their living or
benefit from social security schemes.

The return of Crimean Tatars, a Muslim
people, has also resulted in increased
ethnic and religious tensions. There
has been an increase in attacks against
Crimean Tatars and their properties.
Perhaps most disturbing is that, in
2008, almost 300 gravestones were
demolished in the Nijnegorsk region,
while another 40 were destroyed in
Chistenkoe accompanied by graffiti,
written in Russian, that read: “Tatars,
leave Crimea now!”

There are more than 100,000 Crimean
Tatars still living in Uzbekistan. They
hesitate to return to Crimea due to the
social and economic obstacles faced
by those who do. A reverse trend of
self-exile is occurring in which Crimean
Tatar families— having been unable to
integrate into Ukrainian society— are
moving back to Uzbekistan.

Ali Chabuk is a Masters candidate at
Milano Graduate School of Management
and Urban Policy at the New School
University. He is a 2008-2010 Fulbright
Grantee from Ukraine.

Photo: flickr / qwz

:Peruvian Graffiti

Michael Ryan Wiseman — 2009-06-04T20:58:19Z

AIJ's MR Wiseman recently read the handwriting on the
wall. It belonged to artist-at-large :Peru.

For a free trip, go to www.peru143.com
and explore all of his creations.

Your most recent mural is of a
“Diversitree”; where are your roots?
From where do you derive your energy?

That was my most recent “commercial”
mural— I paint a wall almost every
week. My roots are spread throughout
the world; I grew up in Lima, but since
then I've lived in Ottawa, Montreal,
Vancouver and Barcelona. Peruvian
culture dominates my roots but they all
meet at the center. We all come from the
same place and have more in common
than we may think. For murals I get my
energy from the people I communicate
and interact with; for the rest, I get
inspired by everything from my girl to a
good meal or a good tune.

A rather unimaginative, but laced
with deep psychological insight,
follow-up: if you were a tree, what
kind would you be?

Haha, I've probably been a few kinds
of trees in past lives. I've always liked
African Baobabs and Japanese Bonsai,
I'm supposed to get one in exchange
for a design soon. I'm really into these
psychedelic root formations you can
find from Indochina's ruins to Mexico's
cenotes (underwater caves), or when
they grow around carved rocks, or
reach hundreds of feet down for water.
I would love to visit the redwood forest
someday as well. Does that answer
your question?

Yes, just I suspected... but seriously
now, will murals stop the scourge
of our time that is the great graffiti
menace?

There's nothing you can do to stop it.
A city might make a dent every year by
wasting a million dollars cleaning it up,
but it's far from a solution. In Montreal,
the Mayor's brother has a good grasp
of something more effective, which is
collaborating with community centers
and muralists to enhance certain areas.
You create a direct dialogue with some
artists that can work together in the
hopes of getting some legal walls
for younger kids to learn on, but not
everyone sees murals as reclaiming
space from graffiti. Some people think
it proliferates graffiti and encourages
others to join in the decoration— which
usually means teenagers who don't
know anything about graffiti making
a mess. However, graffiti does not
belong on legally sanctioned walls
alone, so it's the best solution I can
think of. You can build walls to protect
your city from a tsunami, but everyone
is still gonna get wet.

While someone would be hard-
pressed to accuse you of graffiti, the
word itself is derived from the Italian
graffiare, “to scratch”, what is it that
gives you the, ahem, itch?

I find Graffiti culture is a tightly-bound
community of talented and untalented
people who inevitably inspire each
other for pure enjoyment. There's an
innate need for humans to write their
names on walls, from the cave ages
to the Egyptians. Some do it for fame
and attention, some do it for the thrill,
others do it because they are tired of
being overwhelmed by ad campaigns
that tell them they should consume
instead of create.
Through drawing and painting I found
my voice, as well as an appreciation
for myself and the world as a whole. I
believe that the purpose of art in life, if
there is any, is to enlarge the dimensions
of our soul by exercising our creativity
and lay logic and reason to rest.
Not only does art have the ability to give
one a means of self-expression, but
through catharsis one is able to learn
about what is important in life through
self-actualization; the world desperately
needs to get in touch with their inner
art vandal. We have an obligation to
ourselves to dig up our true identity
which, quoting an article I read on Art
Crimes.Org while growing up, gets
“buried by years of acting like other
people.” Not only this, but one must
respond to the cultural responsibility
and contribute something.

You're an accomplished artist— note
that I didn't qualify that with the
word ‘street'— should I have? Where
does the street end? Where does
the artist begin?

Art belongs to the people, in the
streets, not in pretentious galleries
and museums. At least contemporary
art should be open to everyone— to be
appreciated. There's enough brick and
concrete out there as is, we need to
decorate it and put some colour into our
environments. My “graffiti” will always
stay in the streets, otherwise it couldn't
be called that. I don't like this obsession
with labeling ourselves, I just know my
purpose in this life is to do art and I don't
argue with it. You don't put yourself at
risk on so many levels, or spend so much
of your time doing something, unless it
has a deeper meaning to you— whether
you understand that meaning or not.

Photo: shopped- it is a proposed 13-story mural at Montreal's Habitations Bourret